


Challenges

by heithen (audenad)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Altean Hunk (Voltron), Alternate Universe - Canon, Awkwardness, Gen, Hunk (Voltron)-centric, M/M, Pining Hunk (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-27
Updated: 2017-08-27
Packaged: 2018-12-20 05:58:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,113
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11914656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/audenad/pseuds/heithen
Summary: Hunk wakes up to see his world gone, his family dead and only the princess and Coran left of what was once a whole planet.The humans, the rest of the paladins, they try to be helpful, at the very least understanding, but they can't really understand.





	Challenges

**Author's Note:**

> Written after season 1, so like #whatiscanon. Rereading this though, I'm still weirdly very proud of it.
> 
> You can find the original at http://heithen.tumblr.com/post/153352878892/
> 
> Enjoy, and tell me what you thought! :D
> 
>  
> 
> _(Antis please don't interact)_

Hunk wakes up to see his world gone, his family dead and only the princess and Coran left of what was once a whole planet.

The humans, the rest of the paladins, they try to be helpful, at the very least understanding, but they can't really understand.

Hunk knows a lot about the human race, because Hunk asked and searched and prodded. It's never good to have unknown variables, both for their own sake, and for the humans, because every species has their own needs, their own limits.

The Black Paladin is hurt, mentally more than anything. So young, incredibly young by human standards; just a couple of years over being considered 'grown' and still growing, but so _hurt_. His scars are both mental and physical, but the things not seen can often be what destroys a person. However, he can see Shiro getting better; each minute he spends with the team, each time he hugs or is hugged, each time they win against the Galra.

Hunk makes sure to give him very tight hugs, and Shiro melts against him, like the weight of the world is lifted from his shoulders in those moments.

The Green Paladin is obsessed. Obsessed with finding their family, obsessed with technology, obsessed with knowing everything they can about Altea, about their technology. Younger than Shiro, shorter and slighter than everyone, but with a mind sharp as the cruellest knife and a passion for innovation that surprises even him.

He loves that side of them. The princess might be a strong tactician and leader, but a mechanic, she is not. Pidge, he and Coran spend a lot of time together, talking about technology, Altean and human both, and experimenting at making them work together. One day, they'll invent something truly glorious from the amalgam.

The Blue Paladin is lonely. He misses their home planet, his family, the weather... He's the only one taking good care of himself though. He doesn't avoid sleep like the plague, as Shiro does. He doesn't stay up all night by accident like Pidge does or train until he loses track of time like Keith. And his bond with his Lion is the strongest, jumping out at Hunk even when he's in the Yellow Lion.

It's nice to just sit for a while with Lance, talking about things they miss, having a relaxing muscle massage courtesy of the Castle. Sure, Altea may be gone forever, but Lance's eyes lighting up when Hunk tells him a strange fact about their planet is right here and now, and the bitterness gets swallowed in widened eyes and big smiles.

The Red Paladin... he's something else. He never volunteers much information or tries to get closer to Hunk (or Allura and Coran for that matter.) He's content with having Shiro and Pidge around, and gets into shouting matches with Lance a lot. His training regime is something Hunk keeps an eye on, because Keith looks to be one step away from training too much every second day.

Shiro pays attention too, and they might have known each other better than the others, because Shiro accepts hugs from Keith easier, even though the Red Paladin gives them more rarely than anyone except Pidge.

"He's amazing, right?" Shiro tells him one day, when they've bumped into each other outside the training room door in the middle of the night.

"Yes, he is," Hunk says, because what else can he say, that he's _unusually_ interested in Keith? That he loves watching him train? That he's always two seconds away from asking to spar.

The only person Keith spars with one on one is Shiro. Pidge is more interested in honing other skills, and Lance is getting on his nerves all the time. Hunk wants to train with him so badly, but he's not sure what to do or say.

"So, do you two know each other well?" he asks, because the Black Paladin is kind of the expert on Keith. Maybe Hunk can gain some useful knowledge on how to approach him.

"Yeah, you could say that. We were roommates."

"Roommates?"

"Yes, we stayed in the same room, at least until I graduated. But we were still friends, until…"

Until that mission, Hunk finishes in his head.

"I see." He wants to ask more, about how long they've known each other, and about Keith, but he doesn't. He knows when to pry and when not to, and Shiro's far-away look and silence are far more than an indication to stop there.

…

In the end, he just 'accidentally' meets Keith outside the training room and asks him whether he'd like to train together.

Like all Alteans, Hunk can change his form, and that is useful for sure, but he doesn't like to do it very much. And when training, his real form is what makes the difference.

Keith is kind of short, and slight, but there's a lot of muscle in his form, unlike Pidge. Lance has his additional height and mass to compensate for his less than harsh training, and Pidge has their mind.

Hunk is big, and tall, and strong, but that makes him less flexible. A hit from him causes far more damage to Keith than Keith's to him, but the Red Paladin is able to get far more hits in. In the end, it balances out nicely, and they conclude the successful training session when Shiro comes to get them for dinner.

He doesn't mean to eavesdrop, but he also hadn't counted on Shiro following them in the shower chamber. The showers are colour-coded; not surprising, really. The towels and the soaps too, they have the paladin colours and a distinct, different smell for each paladin, reminiscent of Altean fruit.

He's soaking in the water while, in another part of the chamber, Keith and Shiro's conversation echoes, Hunk's Altean ears picking it up.

"That was pretty good, Keith."

"Uh, huh."

"Are you planning on sparring with Hunk more often?"

"Well, not planning, exactly, but it'd be fun to do it again. His style is different from yours, and it's a challenge."

"Then maybe you should offer next time? Evidently, it'd be good for you."

The lack of running water helps Hunk hear more clearly, even though he really didn't mean to. But if he tells them, won't they feel awkward that he is listening in?

"Oh stop it, Shiro. I know what you're doing."

"Oh yeah? I'm just trying to make sure my team develops versatile fighting styles."

"Sure. You also drag Lance and Pidge to training even when they don't want to train."

Hunk almost laughs.

"I don't do that!" Shiro sounds offended.

"Exactly. Now don't tell me you're not trying to get me to get closer to people other than you and Pidge," Keith says, a little impatiently.

"Are you telling me you don't want to get to know Hunk?"

"…I didn't say that, now did I," Keith mumbles and Hunk has trouble picking it up.

He feels himself turning red, and he changes the water's temperature to a little colder. He doesn't need this right now. He gets distracted by the smell of his hair soap, a mix between his two favourite fruits, both having a deep yellow colour.

He will never get to taste them again. Now all he has are the smells, and maybe whatever they can find in markets around the universe. Altea didn't use to export many organic products, mostly specializing in technology, but some fruits were loved by many species the universe over.

By the time Hunk gets out of his thoughts, water has started running, and the voices have stopped. But the conversation he overheard doesn't leave his mind, as well as the fact that Keith wants to get to know him.

For the rest of the day, and long into the night, there is a wide smile on his face.

…

The days pass, slowly and quickly at the same time. Sparring with Keith has become a welcome surprise. Whenever any of them are in the mood they'll spar, and then they'll hang out in Hunk's workshop. A lot of the time, Allura joins them. Mostly though it's Shiro and Pidge that come around, and more rarely Lance.

One day, Keith tells Hunk and Allura that he has no family. Like them.

"Well," he amends, "I wasn't completely alone. I had Shiro."

"You two sure are close," Allura says, and Hunk knows the princess is thinking about their own relationship.

Hunk is… Hunk's mother was the captain of the Guard. She died saving Voltron from Zarkon when he betrayed them all. Allura and he had grown up together, not really close, but close enough. Close enough that when they found themselves alone, the last of their species apart from Coran, there was a deep emotional connection that formed easily, without forcing it. Even so, they know the three of them cannot afford to be separated, physically or emotionally.

"Yeah. He's family. Not sure about what exactly we are, but _family_ is definitely it."

"We understand," Hunk says. If you asked him how he feels about Allura, he wouldn't be able to answer. It's not something cut-and-dry, the way he feels with someone who is so close to him, but not related. There's no label for that feeling, but _family_.

Family is what you have when everything around you is smoke and ruins, when there's nothing to go back to, when there's pieces of your planet floating around in space.

If there's even that much left.

…

He never expected to be a paladin.

But, well, life doesn't always go the way you expect.

Allura looks at him, her eyes full of tears, and gives him a yellow ring, crafted from the finest crystals Altea has, _had_ , to offer. He knows it was her father's, just as much as he knows the Yellow Lion was meant for someone else.

Some Alteans can, _could,_ sense quintessence more deeply and with more precision than the others. Allura was one of them. These Alteans were the ones who would start the process of choosing paladins for the Lions. They were the ones who saw which Lion's quintessence mirrored which prospective paladin's. They were the ones responsible for always having two other candidates in line for each Lion, in case anything happened, though it never did.

Allura was one of them. Of course she knows who the Yellow Lion would go to, provided that she accepted them, in the case of king Alfor's death.

"I'm sorry," he says, because how can he ever be as good as someone who has wanted and waited to fly the Voltron Lions all their life? Or some of it? He's an engineer. Granted, he's the one who made some of the most recent and ground-breaking updates to the Castle of Lions all those years ago, but still an engineer.

"I am too," she says. "But the Yellow Lion is yours. I can feel it, I felt it as soon as we woke up."

"Don't you want to pilot a Lion?" he asks, because the idea of being a paladin is exciting, but also extremely scary.

The princess, _Allura,_ is quiet for a few moments.

"It was top secret," she says at last. "But after Zarkon killed the last Blue Paladin, I took his place. For a few months, I was the one piloting the Blue Lion." Hunk drew a sharp breath. He hadn't known that. After his mother died, him and his dad had few inside news, preferring to join the fight, him piloting and Hunk as an engineer. "We only told his family and not the public."

"So, why aren't you going to pilot it now?" he questions, genuinely curious.

"She has a new paladin now. She brought them here, it wouldn't be right."

He wants to say that that's not right. That she shouldn't sacrifice her own wants for people she has just met when she has much more experience.

"But most importantly," she says, "I am needed to pilot the Castle, and they need me as their leader. They haven't been raised knowing about Voltron, they are unfamiliar with battle, they're not even familiar with each other!" She sighs. "Add us to the mix, and it'll be even worse. No, it's better for the universe if I lead Voltron from here."

He gets it, he does. But he'd still like to have another Altean on the team.

But well, being a paladin meant being closer to Keith, and that was a pretty big positive in the whole situation.

"If it makes you feel better," Allura says, and Hunk realises she has stood up, "it was your father. The one who would try to become the Yellow Paladin in the event of my father's death."

…

It doesn't make him feel any better.

Getting familiar with Yellow is easier than not, the Lion a welcome presence in the back of his mind always. She doesn't judge, only listens, and occasionally offers advice. Like right now, which is a _little_ distracting.

_Paladin. You said you'd approach Red's Paladin today._

She also loves to _meddle_ , Hunk thinks, gritting his teeth. He almost leaves himself open to Keith's fist, but at the last moment he notices and sidesteps suddenly. Keith overbalances, almost falling, but Hunk shoots out an arm and catches him around the waist.

"Thanks Hunk."

But he makes no move to stand up. Instead, he twists around, and Hunk lifts him up to a standing position until they're face to face.

Or, as face to face as they can be with Keith's height.

"Hunk, I-"

_Paladin! Danger!_

Keith startles too, and as one, they rush to the door.

Yellow is more excited than usual during the fight. Usually, she's a solid, stable presence, ready to ram into anything and everything but also quite content with moving at her own pace. She's the slowest, but if that allows her armour to be the thickest, so she can protect everyone, that's fine with both of them.

She's not supposed to be pushed out of the way herself.

The Red Lion is not supposed to be a shield, she's a sword, swift and damning in her attacks. But still.

It's an ion cannon. They've been distracting Hunk on purpose the whole fight, and finally found an opening. Yellow is frozen, as is Hunk; they're too late, whatever they do is gonna be too late.

In just a moment, only a tiny fraction of a tick, the fear makes his brain kick into overdrive, and suddenly all he can think about is Altea. Altea and Allura, Coran, _Keith,_ Shiro, Lance, Pidge, _Yellow_ , Voltron… whatever he wanted to do or say or remember or see or taste again, it's never going to happen. Yellow's fear hits him, mingles with his own until they're one, until the world is nothing but a dream and they're in a nightmare.

Red slams into Yellow and together, they tumble away from the blast, just as the Black and Blue Lions attack the small remainder of the fleet together. The Green Lion delivers the final blow, coming into view right behind the last huge ship.

They're all shaken, but alive. Hunk feels rattled, lost, like he still hasn't come back to his body. Yellow, behind him in the hangar, feels more real than Shiro's hand on his shoulder, than Allura's voice speaking to him.

He doesn't want to leave her, not after what happened. But the danger is over, and she's settling down to rest, to collect her thoughts, and he leaves her at it. The other Lions are already clamouring for her and Red's attention.

From the corner of his eyes, he sees Keith, leaving Red and coming towards them.

Keith. Oh no, what if he's hurt? What if the ion canon damaged Red? What if it didn't, and the collision with Yellow injured Keith? Or Red?

Light and sound is coming back suddenly, and he feels like he's been underwater this whole time. Hunk is falling, back into his body, back into reality.

He's here. They're here, they're real, they're alive.

…

The ring, Alfor's ring, has bruised his finger. It happened when he slammed on the wall during the fight. He hadn't even felt it, and even now, it's such a minor thing he can't even feel it. It only happened because the mechanism keeping him in the seat malfunctioned momentarily, something that takes a particular kind of combination of bad luck and failing systems to happen. He could just hide it, but some healing cream would do him good.

Keith chooses the exact moment that he exits the infirmary to appear in front of him.

"Hey," he says, almost surprised.

"How are you?" Hunk asks. If Keith had got hurt saving _him_ … he shouldn't have left so quickly before.

"I'm fine. Nothing hurts."

"Red?"

"Just great. It was time I got you back for our first day of training anyway."

Oh right. Yes. Hunk is pretty sure he remembers that, slamming into Red, yelling 'combine!' when he was out of ideas for forming Voltron. Lance still gets on his case for that.

Maybe it's because they were expecting him, being Altean, to know more about the Lions and about Voltron. But, before, he'd only ever seen the giant robot in action, and never concerned himself with how it was formed beyond the mechanical side of things.

The whole Paladin-bonding deal was a surprise, to say the least.

"Yeah, sorry about that," he self-consciously looks away. He wonders for a second how to keep the conversation going, until he remembers something important. "Thank you, for saving me."

"I- You're welcome."

"You know," Hunk takes a breath, "there was something I meant to tell you."

"Dinner!" comes an enthusiastic voice from the speakers.

…

Hunk spends dinner picking at his plate. As soon as he's done, he gets up to leave, Keith trailing behind him.

"Hunk!" Keith's voice stops him two steps from his room.

He turns around, ready for anything. Keith is staring him down in determination.

"I like you." Keith doesn't say anything else, only looking him in the eye as if in a challenge.

He's usually not good with challenges, but this one? This one he's been waiting for.

"I like you too," he says, leaning in, and their lips meet in the middle.

Hunk's arms wrap around Keith easily, picking him up, making it easier to keep contact. Keith's own arms are linked behind his neck, lips sweet and warm against Hunk's.

They break away slowly, Keith smiling softly and Hunk with a wide grin.

"Finally," Keith says, and Hunk kisses him again.

Finally, indeed.


End file.
